JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria 2026: Qualification, Age, Number of Attempts

JEE Advanced Eligibility 2026: IIT Roorkee is likely to organize JEE Advanced 2026 and will upload the detailed eligibility criteria on the official website – jeeadv.ac.in. The eligibility rules for JEE Advanced 2026 are based on five main factors: qualification in JEE Main 2026, the number of attempts allowed, age requirement, year of passing Class 12, and previous admission status at IITs. Only candidates meeting all these conditions will be able to register for the exam in the upcoming session.

JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria 2026

The JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria include JEE Mains score, age limit, number of attempts, and the minimum percentage secured in the 12th board examination. To qualify for the JEE Advanced 2026 exam, students should fulfil the following five criteria as mentioned below:

JEE Mains Score

Candidates who secure a rank among the top 2,50,000 successful candidates in the BTech/BE Paper (Paper 1) in JEE Mains are eligible to apply for the upcoming JEE Advanced exam. A certain percentage of students of various categories will be shortlisted for JEE Advanced 2026 as follows:

• 10% for GEN-EWS
• 27% for OBC-NCL
• 15% for SC
• 7.5% for ST
• 40.5% for OPEN
• Within each of these categories, 5% of the reservation is available for PwD students.

Students must rank among 2,50,000 students in various categories based on the performance in the BTech/ BE paper of JEE Mains. The table given below shows the category-wise distribution of the top 2,50,000 students:

Age Limit

Students willing to appear for the JEE Advanced must have been born on or after October 2001. However, SC, ST, and PWD candidates are given an age relaxation of five years, i.e., these candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 1996.

Number of Attempts

According to the new update, applicants are allowed to appear for JEE Advanced only two times in two consecutive years. In the last year, the exception to this rule applied only to those candidates who had withdrawn from their course or dropped out between November 5 to November 14, 2024. Such candidates could register and reappear for JEE Advanced 2026.

Educational Qualifications

• Students who have passed their 12th examination in 2025 or 2026 with Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics (PCM) as compulsory subjects are eligible to sit for JEE Advanced 2026.
• If a student has just appeared for the board examination and the result has not been declared yet, or if the authorities have withheld it, it will be considered as an appearance. Students can still appear for the JEE Advanced exam.
• Students whose board examination results were declared on or after June 28, 2025, can apply for the JEE Advanced 2026 examination. This will be based on the condition that the student meets all the other eligibility requirements.

Here’s a list of examinations considered equivalent to the 12th standard certification:

• The final examination of the 10+2 system, conducted by a State or a Central Board, recognised by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU)
• Intermediate or two-year Pre-University examination conducted by a Board or University recognised by AIU
• Final examination of the two-year course of the Joint Services Wing of the National Defence Academy.
• Senior Secondary School Examination conducted by NIOS with at least five subjects
• Any Public School, Board, or University in India or a foreign country.
• Higher Secondary Vocational examination
• A Diploma recognised by the AICTE or a State Board of Technical Education for a minimum of 3 years
• General Certificate Examination (GCE) (London, Cambridge, or Sri Lanka) at the Advanced A level.
• High School Certificate Examination of the Cambridge University or International Baccalaureate Diploma of the International Baccalaureate Office, Geneva

Earlier Admission at IITs

According to the new rules, a candidate should not have been admitted to any IIT in any program to be eligible for the JEE Advanced 2026. This is applicable irrespective of reason, such as dropping out, discontinuing the program, or accepting an IIT seat by reporting online or at a reporting centre. Here’s a list of candidates who will be considered to appear for JEE Advanced 2026:

• JoSAA allotted a seat to a student, but he/she did not accept
• Candidates withdrew before the last round of seat allotment
• Students got their seats cancelled before the final counselling session for admission into IITs.

JEE Advanced Eligibility Criteria 2026: Foreign Nationals

Students from outside India have to meet the minimum qualifications to be eligible for the JEE Advanced 2026 exam. Candidates who are not citizens of India by birth or whose parents are not from India will be considered foreign nationals.

As per the recent Writ Petition (Civil) No. 12263/2024 of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court, candidates who have obtained their OCI/ PIO cards before 4th March, 2021, can apply for the JEE Advanced exam as foreign nationals or as Indian citizens. Furthermore, foreign national candidates are exempted from appearing in the JEE Mains exam to be eligible for JEE Advanced. Given below are some of the provisions made for foreign nationals before they get admitted into any IIT:

• Nearly 10% of the total number of seats in each course will be reserved for foreign nationals under the supernumerary quota.
• Candidates who obtained their OCI/PIO cards before March 4, 2021, and chose to remain as foreign nationals will be considered based on fulfilling the eligibility conditions. In addition, they will be eligible to compete only for the foreign supernumerary seats.
• During the seat allocation process, such candidates will be considered for seats in the OPEN or OPEN-Pwd category.
• OCI/PIO candidates cannot enjoy any benefits of reservation under the GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, or ST categories when allocating seats.

JEE Advanced Cutoff 2026: Minimum Qualifying Marks

The Common Ranking List (CRL) is a list ranking all candidates based on their performance in the JEE Advanced 2026 exam. The JEE Advanced cutoffs are the minimum qualifying marks required in each subject to be included in the rank list. Given below is a category-wise table containing the minimum percentage of aggregate marks and minimum marks required in each subject:

JEE Advanced 2026 FAQs